The 2025 Women’s Final Four doesn’t have the same star power without Caitlin Clark leading the Iowa Hawkeyes. Clark led the Hawkeyes to back-to-back NCAA Tournament championship appearances in 2023 and 2024.
Iowa didn’t win a championship before Clark entered the WNBA draft and was selected by the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 pick in 2024. However, she was the undisputed best player in college. Her skillset allowed ESPN to promote the sport, and a small rivalry with Angel Reese of LSU helped ratings.
Without Clark and Reese, women’s college basketball has relied on USC’s JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers to draw fans in 2025.
The “Caitlin Clark Effect”
Per Colin Salao of Front Office Sports, the Women’s Final Four is still drawing a large television viewing audience compared to the pre-Clark era, but ratings are down %64 percent from 2024.
“It’s a mixed bag for the women’s Final Four ratings,” Salao wrote. “The two games Friday drew an average of 3.9 million viewers on ESPN. It marks the third-most-watched Final Four in history—but the figure was also down 64% from last year’s average of about 10.8 million viewers.
“In a year without the Caitlin Clark Effect of 2024, the dip is not surprising. Compared to 2023, every other round of this year’s tournament surpassed viewership significantly, yet the Final Four was still down around 14% from the 4.54 million average from 2023.”
The national championship between UConn and South Carolina is set for Sunday at 3 p.m. EST on ABC.
Can another athlete be marketed like Clark?
The WNBA is preparing for higher ratings and more fans in stands–at least for Fever games. The Fever are set to play the Chicago Sky in NBA arenas this season so more spectators can watch Reese and Clark battle on the court.
The new rating numbers prove the sport’s promoters have more work to do to make the sport more popular. Clark resonated with fans. The sport, especially the WNBA, which wants to grow, needs more marketable athletes at the college level.
Even so, Clark probably isn’t replaceable.
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